THIS IS A TEST INSTANCE. ALL YOUR CHANGES WILL BE LOST!!!!
...
Proposal:
...
Stylesheet
...
Overrides
...
for
...
Weblogs
Status | Proposal under development |
Target Release | 4.0 |
Original Authors | Allen Gilliland |
Abstract
This is a proposal to define a standard way to integrate stylesheet customizations for weblogs, particularly weblogs using a non-custom theme.
This issue has been discussed before and there was a proposal a while back to accomplish this same task by supporting theme properties. There was a reasonable amount of discussion about theme properies approach and ultimately the idea was not agreed upon. While this proposal does not offer all of the same features of theme properties it does offer a significant portion of them, namely the ability to do custom css styling without having to hack the original template files.
The basic idea here is to be more simplistic in our approach to weblog styling overrides than the theme properties and simply define a standard way for weblogs to plug in a custom stylesheet. This approach would be very similar to the way WordPress allows users to stylesheet customizations to change the way their blogs are formatted.
Requirements
- provide a way for custom weblog stylesheets to be defined to manipulate weblog styling without forcing users to "customize" their theme and edit its templates.
Issues
Issues to be considered
Design
First we would need to add a way to track the custom stylesheet at the weblog level and define a custom stylesheet via theme metadata. So we start by adding one new column to the website table for "customstylesheet" which simply maintains the path under the weblog's custom pages to use as the custom stylesheet. Upgrading installations would have this property set to NULL meaning that there is no custom stylesheet defined. Then in the theme xml metadata file we would add support for one new element ...
| No Format |
|---|
|*Status*|Proposal under development| |*Target Release*|4.0| |*Original Authors*|Allen Gilliland| h2. Abstract This is a proposal to define a standard way to integrate stylesheet customizations for weblogs, particularly weblogs using a non-custom theme. This issue has been discussed before and there was a proposal a while back to accomplish this same task by supporting theme properties. There was a reasonable amount of discussion about theme properies approach and ultimately the idea was not agreed upon. While this proposal does not offer all of the same features of theme properties it does offer a significant portion of them, namely the ability to do custom css styling without having to hack the original template files. The basic idea here is to be more simplistic in our approach to weblog styling overrides than the theme properties and simply define a standard way for weblogs to plug in a custom stylesheet. This approach would be very similar to the way WordPress allows users to stylesheet customizations to change the way their blogs are formatted. h2. Requirements * provide a way for custom weblog stylesheets to be defined to manipulate weblog styling without forcing users to "customize" their theme and edit its templates. h2. Issues Issues to be considered h2. Design First we would need to add a way to track the custom stylesheet at the weblog level and define a custom stylesheet via theme metadata. So we start by adding one new column to the website table for "customstylesheet" which simply maintains the path under the weblog's custom pages to use as the custom stylesheet. Upgrading installations would have this property set to NULL meaning that there is no custom stylesheet defined. Then in the theme xml metadata file we would add support for one new element ... {noformat} <custom-stylesheet path="mytheme-custom.css" /> {noformat} |
These
...
would
...
be
...
the
...
only
...
changes
...
required
...
to
...
the
...
data
...
model
...
to
...
support
...
the
...
custom
...
stylesheets.
...
In
...
the
...
application
...
business
...
logic
...
we
...
would
...
be
...
adding
...
a
...
new
...
method
...
to
...
the
...
WebsiteData
...
pojo
...
to
...
access
...
the
...
custom
...
stylesheet
...
path,
...
getCustomStylesheet().
...
This
...
provides
...
an
...
easy
...
and
...
consistent
...
way
...
for
...
all
...
templates
...
to
...
access
...
the
...
custom
...
stylesheet
...
for
...
a
...
weblog,
...
simply
...
via
...
$model.weblog.customStylesheet
...
in
...
velocity.
...
Since
...
this
...
method
...
needs
...
to
...
be
...
theme
...
sensitive
...
it
...
would
...
be
...
designed
...
such
...
that
...
if
...
a
...
weblog
...
is
...
using
...
a
...
shared
...
theme
...
then
...
the
...
value
...
would
...
come
...
from
...
the
...
Theme,
...
meaning
...
what's
...
defined
...
in
...
the
...
metadata
...
file,
...
and
...
if
...
the
...
weblog
...
is
...
using
...
a
...
custom
...
theme
...
then
...
the
...
value
...
comes
...
from
...
the
...
database.
...
The
...
value
...
for
...
the
...
database
...
property
...
only
...
changes
...
when
...
a
...
weblog
...
owner
...
changes
...
their
...
theme
...
selection.
...
- For
...
- example,
...
- a
...
- weblog
...
- starts
...
- with
...
- the
...
- basic
...
- theme
...
- and
...
- we'll
...
- say
...
- that
...
- the
...
- custom
...
- stylesheet
...
- defined
...
- for
...
- that
...
- theme
...
- is
...
- basic-custom.css.
...
- The
...
- weblog
...
- owner
...
- then
...
- decides
...
- to
...
- customize
...
- that
...
- theme
...
- and
...
- at
...
- that
...
- point
...
- the
...
- property
...
- is
...
- copied
...
- into
...
- the
...
- database
...
- since
...
- that
...
- weblog
...
- no
...
- longer
...
- references
...
- the
...
- theme
...
- anymore.
...
- This
...
- can
...
- happen
...
- as
...
- many
...
- times
...
- as
...
- necessary
...
- and
...
- ensures
...
- that
...
- the
...
- property
...
- in
...
- the
...
- database
...
- is
...
- always
...
- either
...
- NULL,
...
- meaning
...
- no
...
- custom
...
- stylesheet
...
- option
...
- was
...
- chosen,
...
- or
...
- it
...
- is
...
- the
...
- value
...
- of
...
- the
...
- custom
...
- stylesheet
...
- path
...
- from
...
- the
...
- last
...
- theme
...
- the
...
- weblog
...
- customized.
...
To
...
plug
...
the
...
custom
...
stylesheet
...
into
...
theme
...
templates
...
only
...
requires
...
that
...
the
...
template
...
author
...
add
...
this
...
one
...
line
...
into
...
the
...
appropriate
...
location
...
of
...
the
...
html
...
head
...
section
...
...
| No Format |
|---|
{{{ <link rel="stylesheet" href="$url.page($model.weblog.customStylesheet)" type="text/css" /> }}} |
All
...
of
...
the
...
actual
...
interface
...
for
...
editing
...
the
...
custom
...
stylesheet
...
would
...
simply
...
be
...
the
...
existing
...
templates
...
editing
...
UI
...
and
...
the
...
custom
...
stylesheet
...
would
...
be
...
treated
...
and
...
stored
...
just
...
like
...
any
...
other
...
weblog
...
template.
...
When
...
a
...
user
...
decides
...
to
...
customize
...
the
...
styling
...
of
...
their
...
theme
...
we
...
would
...
simply
...
automate
...
the
...
process
...
of
...
creating
...
the
...
custom
...
stylesheet
...
template
...
and
...
then
...
allow
...
theme
...
to
...
edit
...
it
...
however
...
they
...
wish.
...
Links
...
to
...
guide
...
the
...
user
...
in
...
doing
...
the
...
stylesheet
...
customization
...
will
...
be
...
provided
...
on
...
the
...
theme
...
selection
...
page.
...
Comments
Comments ...
...